Graduated from the Musical Theatre Directing Faculty of the Leningrad Conservatoire (course of Professor Tikhomirov and I. Glikman).
Principal Director of the Kazakh Abai Theatre of Opera and Ballet (Alma-Ata) from 1984 to 1988, where he staged the operas Maria Stuardo, Eugene Onegin, Carmen and Oratorio Pathetique.

Stage Director at the Mariinsky Theatre since 1988. Has staged the operas Kashchei the Deathless, Tosca and Prince Igor (complete original version). Worked as assistant director on the opera War and Peace (at the Mariinsky Theatre in 2000 and at the Metropolitan Opera in 2002).